Rusev made his singles debut on NXT on the August 21, 2013 episode, coming up short to Dolph Ziggler. His strong showing against the former World Heavyweight led him to getting pushed on the program, later being joined by his new manager Lana. The two ran roughshod on NXT for the brief period of time they were there before being promoted to the main roster in early 2014. Rusev participated in the 2014 Royal Rumble match in a losing effort and continued to appear on Raw and SmackDown in a non-wrestling role in subsequent weeks. He finally competed in his first one-on-one match on Raw one night removed from WrestleMania 30, beating Zack Ryder. Since then, Rusev has embarked on an undefeated streak with wins over the likes of Big E, Jack Swagger, Rob Van Dam and others. Officials appear to be very high on Rusev's potential to be a top star within WWE, so his absence from the WWE 2K15 comes as a slight surprise. It was well-known that Rusev was main roster bound dating back to last November, so one would think they would have planned ahead and included him in the game, especially since they could have pulled his move set from NXT.
Since 2008, Graham has been a diehard pro wrestling fan and, in 2010, he combined his passions for WWE and writing when he joined Bleacher Report. Equipped with a master's in journalism, Graham has contributed to WhatCulture, FanSided's Daily DDT, Sports Betting Dime, and GateHouse Media. Along the way, he has conducted interviews with wrestling superstars like Chris Jericho, Edge, Goldberg, Christian, Diamond Dallas Page, Jim Ross, Adam Cole, Tessa Blanchard, Ryback, and Nick Aldis among others.
